Life never stands still if you are a Murdoch. If you are Lachlan Keith Murdoch, oldest son of media magnate Keith Rupert Murdoch, that involves trying (and failing) to future-proof the family empire from your more progressive sibling in a botched Reno, Nevada, succession plan over the future of News Corporation and Fox Corporation.

And if you are Sarah Murdoch, that involves reanimating the wildly popular Tropfest film festival as chair of the newly reconstituted event along with NRL supremo Peter V’landys, actor Bryan Brown and original founder John Polson.

That is not to say the power couple are not keenly involved in events much closer to home: the entrance to their Sydney harbourside property, to be precise.

A development application lodged with Woollahra Council shows the executive chairman of Nova Entertainment, chairman of News Corp, executive chairman and chief executive of Fox Corporation and his spouse plan driveway upgrade at their private waterfront playground overlooking Rose Bay. And what an upgrade.

In 2021, the Murdochs paid $38.5 million for the rustic two-storey boathouse set on the prized Wunulla Road in Point Piper, just down the street from the home of Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull.

It was dubbed “Australia’s most expensive boat shed” at the time, but did come with a major attraction: a wide deepwater frontage.

The property’s two jetties and four boat moorings has been described (admittedly by property spruikers) as “arguably the best privately-owned marina facility attached to a residential property on Sydney Harbour”. Well, who are we to argue?

Last year, the Murdochs got approval to demolish and rebuild the property’s harbourfront swimming pool (plus associated landscaping works) at an estimated cost of $128,610.

The latest DA lodged by “Mr L K & Mrs S A Murdoch” late last month estimates the new drive will set them back $183,700. CBD cannot tell if that estimate is Point Piper prices or Murdoch prices – either way, a very grand entrance by the sounds of it.

Scientific survivor

An Australian Survivor scenario is playing out in a conference and wedding venue in Southbank Melbourne right now, according to some observers, as scientists at our premier publicly funded research body, the CSIRO, sing not only for their supper but their survival.

About 440 jobs were slashed last year, and now research and science jobs are up for the axe in a four-day “Research Portfolio Build Workshop” attended by the leadership team, science directors and research unit and program directors.

Here, researchers from units such as climate change, agriculture and food and Data 61, which deals with artificial intelligence, will conduct a series of “deep dive presentations … to further enrich our collective understanding of our science” according to an internal briefing note.

The consequences will be profound.

Last week, the jungle drums were beating a foreboding tone when CSIRO chief executive Doug Hilton emailed staff to tell them that the 76-year-old research institution needed to become “simpler and sustainable”. CBD could feel the axe swinging from here.

Hilton said the workshop would be all about “clarifying the future shape of our research portfolio” and hearing the presentations would be “really exciting”. Or terrifying, we guess.

“I need to be clear, we will need to exit some research,” he told staff.

According to the Commonwealth Public Sector Union, scientists will be forced to “pitch for their lives in Survivor-style science cuts”.

“CSIRO’s research leaders have been dragged into a Survivor-style contest and made to pitch for the survival of projects in their research units,” said the union’s Susan Tonks.

A CSIRO spokeswoman said funding had not kept pace with running a modern science agency, and it was reshaping its research portfolio.

“The workshop we are holding this week is an important step to inform these decisions. Any proposed changes will be done in line with well-established processes, policies and our enterprise agreement, including our commitment to consult with staff prior to decisions being made,” she said.

Doorstops without journos

Labor assistant minister Patrick Gorman and rookie member for Whitlam Carol Berry staged a feel-good media doorstop at parliament’s Mural Hall on Monday to commemorate national Wattle Day – also known as the beginning of spring.

Gorman released a “doorstop interview” transcript of proceedings. It records how he urges all Australians to “to snap a photo for their Instagram of wattle” or to just “admire the natural beauty of this country”.

And how many journos were on hand at this press event to take up the assistant minister on his spirited offer? Zero.

But that didn’t stop Gorman, who even repeated Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s favourite election campaign trope and admired the natural beauty of his Medicare card, which he had produced with a flourish. “One of the other reasons I love Wattle Day is because it gave us the green and gold for this thing, the Medicare card,” Gorman said in the transcript, clearly aware of how to team with the theme.

Before we make too much fun of Gorman and Berry, CBD has news that may shock readers: lower-profile pollies sometimes don’t attract any reporters to the regular press events held in the Mural Hall, although a camera in the space means they can normally be viewed on televisions around parliament house. Who needs journos anyway?

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